I'm a bit of a Joss Whedon fanatic. I've seen all his TV shows, even all 5 seasons of Angel, the Buffy spinoff, all of Firefly and up to the very last episode of Dollhouse. Serenity, his movie spin off of Firefly is definitely one of my favourite, if not my favourite Sci fi movie of the past couple of decades and this week I finally saw Cabin in the Woods.
And it's amazing. I know a lot of people will be scared off by the horror tag line, and it is s horror, I suppose, but it's more than that, it's funny, seriously funny, and entertaining and only a little gory. And it has some of the best examples of genre writing in movies today.
The movie was made with a true love of horror movies and the stereotypes that have emerged from the genre.
It not only understands those stereotypes but turns them on their head. I'm trying not to give too much away, but I can say, the first five minutes of the movie articulates perfectly and in ridiculously little dialogue who these 5 main characters are, and they are not the typical horror movie cliched tropes. If I say any more I'll ruin the surprises in this movie and the surprises are more than worth the cost of admission.
But if horror isn't your thing, than Serenity is a great example of what Joss Whedon does well. It has the great, funny dialogue, the way he can sum up a character perfectly in just a few lines of dialogue, and the seemingly frail girl who is anything but and will usually end up saving the world. For another example of this, see Buffy, Dollhouse and well, almost anything he does. And Serenity has one of my favourite endings. Just the captain of the ship and the heroine sitting in the cockpit, and he starts to tell her one of his favourite sayings, but stops, because she knows what he's about to say, but she asks him to anyway, because she likes to hear the words.
And by all early accounts, the Avengers is another great example of a Joss Whedon movie. Me, I'm hoping maybe he can resurrect Firefly again, I'd settle for another movie, but another TV would be great, maybe on HBO?
Anyone else seen Cabin in the Woods, or Serenity? Am I alone in my Joss Whedon love?
6 comments:
I've been dying to talk about Cabin in the Woods. But you're right. Doing it here would be spoilerish.
It's such a hard movie to talk about without spoilers. I had mostly figured out what was going on way before it was revealed, but then the way he ended it. Ha!
I'm not a horror movie person, at all. But this wasn't really like a horror movie as you say. So clever. I want to see it again. And maybe do some research to identify what was happening in the other countries.
One of the best premises for a movie/story (so jealous) I've seen in a long time.
Damn it - I'm going to have to see it, aren't I?
Whedon's affection and respect for genre storytelling is so obvious and it makes all his work fresh.
I heard GREAT things about this movie! And I too loved Firefly and Serenity... so, yeah. I definitely want to see this one. :)
Yep - total lover of all things Whedon - in fact once I heard he was directing the Avengers (I had totally written off all superhero movies) I thought... well now I'll have to be back in.
And I'm still waiting for him to do Wonder Woman the right way!
His name is Joss, not Josh.
Oh, I didn't even see the name typo, Anon. Good catch. :)
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